Photographer's Note

This shot is from a bluff overlooking an excellent surfing spot. It's at night during an unusually high red tide, which creates blue bioluminescent waves at night. The waves are great to watch: they look like electric sparks when they break. The blue light is emitted by dead phytoplankton under impact, so it is also neat to stomp on the wet sand and see it make a blue flash.

The exposure time on this photo is 16", which also nicely captured the night lights of La Jolla and Del Mar.

Nice note and shot! I think that the perspective showing the city distracts from (what I think is) the main subject (the waves). The long exposure created an interesting effect on the backwash of the waves; worth exploring. The shot is grainy though, despite the fact you used ISO 100...

You capture an eerie quality in the water. The long exposure makes the water look like a cloud viewed from above as if from an airplane. That's a fascinating natural phenomenon, the luminescent waves. I don't think I've ever seen that before, in person or in photographs. Thank you!

I love your pictures. I do not know why the people do not coment nice pictures. The wavers are awesome and you picture the fire in LA, awesome too. Thanks for sharing such a pictures
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Filip Trezzi

Hi Phil, wow, what a great picture! I like the yellow/blue-contrast of the rocks and the waves. But what makes this shot so special are the silhouettes of the palmtrees in the moon(?)light.
Very very well done.

I would have however cropped out a little bit more of the picture on the bottom (to hide the bright rocks), the left to rid the picture of the very distraction haze and the top (as there is no useful information there).
As such the picture would look like a panorama and should emphasize the waves.
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I'm not sure but if you try putting a frame either black or blue it might help highlight the waves even more.